Excellent, Without a doubt!!

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I didn't know this movie was based on a book until the end. I've watched it now several times and each time it makes me tear up at the end, at the injustice of an illness that robbed us of so many young people, at the love that two people shared, at the sublime portrayal of a romance between two men that happened to be gay. Obviously, the script is magnificent and the dialogue is paced just right. However, what I believe elevates this movie to the rank of excellent is the acting. I got to the point where I forgot I was watching a movie and I felt like I was watching the life story of two friends being played in front of my eyes. There aren't very many LGBT films that grab at my heartstrings and pull with enough emotion to make me remember the next day but this movie is certainly one of them. Definitely worth watching!

I actually watched this film about 2 months ago, but I still remember it vividly. Reading the book in a week after watching the movie also ensured that my life for the next month was going to be a roller-coaster of emotions. This movie will make you cry, a lot!The thing I adore about Holding the man is how Corr and Stott played their characters so well and fittingly to the real Tim and John in the book- it makes the film as a whole so much more engaging and heart-breaking. The movie's actual love story context is SO much more than just a love story. From protesting homophobia to harrowing encounters with disease and how it can effect a relationship, Holding The Man features so much that by the end of the movie, you will feel like you've gone through something... beautifully tragic. I honestly felt depressed for a solid 2 weeks after watching this film. This is perhaps a reason why I should give this movie a 9 star rating instead of 10, but I just can't! Months on from watching the film, John and Tim do still occasionally crop into my mind; but not in a sad, melancholy way, but in a peaceful way. The film made me care for these men I've never met. Something no other film apart from Brokeback Mountain made me do.I recommend this movie so highly if you love an epic love story that actually is so much more than that. It's beautiful and happy and exciting and sad and horrible all in one! I love it so much.

As we are sitting relaxed in a cinema or at home or on a plane or in a hotel room watching these movies it is very easy for us to comment this should have been done or that should have been done, wish that had been said, that actor could have done a better job etc. I am one of many that has no idea the time it takes to learn about the real life characters and just how exhausting and mentally draining acting these roles can be. I have now watched this movie twice and I don't know the words to describe it excellent, fantastic, beautiful, sad, funny. I know I enjoyed it from the first word to the last word. The acting was just stunning from all cast members with amazing sense of depth and reality. It takes you in from the start . Having been with my husband (well not legal yet in Australia) for 24 years and after watching this story I have a love for him all over again and want to spend the rest of my life with this man till the day I die. You sometimes forget the good that you have in your life. I can only comment on this movie as to what we were shown. The writer was going on a book written by Tim, with information also from both family members, friends and people that knew Tim and John. I am sure Tim and John had all sorts of good and bad issues happening in their lives that nobody will ever know about. I am not going to judge Tim if he did "kill the man he loved" we will never know if that was the case None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes and we will never know the real lives of Tim and John that went on behind closed doors. I still don't know why so many people around the world still hate gay men to a point they want us dead. I am sad a torrent site told me in an email they will not recommend or promote any movie with male gay themes. The last 30 minutes of the movie is the most heart wrenching of any movie I have ever seen you will cry and if you don't you are not human. Ryan, Craig, Anthony, Camilla, Guy, Kerry and the rest of the cast Thankyou for doing this story for us. GAY MARRIAGE FOR Australia NOW

This has been a favourite book of mine for many years, one I always have a few spare copies of to lend out to people, not because I think the literary skills are phenomenal but because I think it is a beautiful story of passion, lust, leaving and love. I've tried not to include spoilers in my review but there are one or two things that really perhaps are if you haven't already read the book or are aware of the story of Tim and John.I saw the play in London some years back, and thought it cleverly done, and I had hoped to see it one day become a movie. Whilst I didn't doubt there would be some challenges in doing this, I thought it had potential to be retold in the cinematic form as beautifully as it is told in written form.Let me start by saying I think the Actors were well chosen and performed very well. The character of the two lead personalities of the book were to a large extent captured, Tim's extroversion to John's quiet thoughtfulness. I thought the roles of both sets of parents were equally well played, with the supporting friend roles perhaps being a little bit neither here nor there in terms of what I think they really bought to the film (unlike their roles in the book).What I did think was missing was much of the actual story, there were for me many parts missing, essential parts that enabled me as a reader to understand some of the decisions and directions Tim took in his life, parts of the overall journey he was living and how that impacted John and others around him, by their absence the movie lost something - parts that were rich in the telling were summarised by some random sex scenes and a visit to a gay mens sauna.Whilst I appreciate the need to confidence a book into a film, the absence of these parts of the book left me feeling less like I knew either character, and thus less invested in them. Obviously I knew where the film was going in terms of it's conclusion, and in the book that conclusion was heart rending sadness, real lump in the throat tears on the cheeks stuff.... the movie was more for me just a case of 'yep OK so they put that bit in but left this and that bit out'. I was not able to connect with the characters because so much of their story was missing.Am I glad it was made into a film, yes. Do I wish the script writers had included more, yes. Do I wish the editing perhaps had been a little more judicious in places and possibly a little less ruthless in others, yes. Would i watch it repeatedly, which I do with movies I love, perhaps not so much, and would I recommend others see it now it is becoming available through DVD/Blu-Ray/iTunes - yes, but only if they have not read the book. To me, this movie was a little bit of a disappointment for the reasons stated above, it could have been more, it could have told the viewer more about their lives, their struggles, the way they fought to overcome all that they faced, but really for me it could have created characters for these good actors to inhabit who one could connect with on an emotional level and share the lows and highs, instead, it felt as if they were cardboard cut outs of themselves.As someone now living with HIV myself, I am only too aware of the struggles they faced, times have changed, medication is available but the experiences people went through in those times are all to real in our very recent past, and the stigma, shame and negative attitude is still so prevalent - this story is one of love overcoming all but the worst of times and the worst of situations, it gave and perhaps still gives many hope in finding love in life despite the challenges and in spite of some of the choices we make on purpose. I really just wanted more, more of them, more of the emotion and turmoil, the guilt, the anxiety, the passion and the sense of being denied that was so full in the book. Alas, to me it did not happen.